Before I Die Kettering

When the credits roll at the end of your life, how will you have wanted to live?
Regularly contemplating death is a powerful tool to restore perspective and remind us of the things that make our lives meaningful. With more ways to share in public space, the people around us can not only help us make better place, they can help us become our best selves.
This blog will follow the responses made on the Before I Die Wall in Kettering, Ohio.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Holiday at Home festival over Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer, but summer certainly goes out with a BANG thanks to this weekend celebration at the Fraze. Here are the responses collected over the two day event:

1) Be a football NFL player
2) Be UCA Grand Champs
3) Go to a Katy Perry concert
4) Go south of the equator
5) Get a puppy named Hank
6) Live on a beach
7) Be gamous
8) Have a horse
9) Love myself fully
10) Have everyone turn to Jesus! God bless!
11) Go to Colorado
12) Become a barrel roller with my Tennessee walker
13) Travel the world
14) Cure diabetes
15) Bengals win the Superbowl
16) Have a child
17) See both of my sons living independently, happy and successful
18) Go to Las Vegas, for Joan
19) Run the Creasant City Classic 10K in New Orleans for Amanda
20) Have 20 billion cats
21) Be a race car driver
22) Be on Broadway
23) Cure cancer
24) Attend the Olympics
25) Raise a family
26) No more taxes!
27) Cruise
28) Get wifi
29) Kiss a boy
30) Sing a Schuster
31) Scuba dive the Great Barrier Reed
32) Live
33) Be on the US soccer team
34) See my grandkids
35) Marry "Him"
36) Get married and kids
37) See the whole world
38) Love
39) Go to the Superbowl
40) Live somewhere fancy
41) Eat somebody
42) I want to change how we learn
43) Love and be loved
44) Save 100 puppies for "Buddy"
45) Make a name 4 myself
46) See peace in Israel
47) Go to France
48) Marry a man
49) Win the lottery
50) Have a farm
51) Debt free!!!
52) Go to NYC
53) Sky dive
54) Meet Channing
55) Be a Social Studies teacher
56) Thank Jesus
57) Meet Joey Votto
58) See my children happy and healthy with their own children
59) Go to Africa and see the hippos
60) Change the world
61) Retire well and long
63) Defeat Alter
64) No more CF
65) Be a rock
66) Fly a plane
67) Be a Disney Princess at Disney World
68) Play college football for Ohio State
69) Run Boston
70) African Safari
71) Live in a tree
72) Go to all the Disney parks!
73) Want to see Jesus
74) Make a difference
75) Have kids
76) Travel the world
77) Cure breast cancer
78) Win the moparnats
79) Understand people, peace, culture and religion
80) Become a Baccarat
81) Play Meg Giry
82) Fall in love

Friday, August 30, 2013

Wanting to help people to move from just writing on a wall to actually going after their dreams and ambitions, we encouraged people to engage in the Storyline process. The goal of Storyline is to help people create life plans that give them personal vision and clarity by focusing on a meaningful life rather than just a productive one. Here is one person's experience going through the Storyline process.

Want to take the next step in your story?

http://storylineblog.com/starthere/

Natalie is a recent graduate from Kettering Fairmont High School and today (August 30) is currently moving into her dorm room to start a new adventure at Eastern Michigan University with a full ride athletic scholarship. This summer, not only did she follow through with what she wrote on the Before I Die wall to sky dive, she engaged in the Storyline process and this is her story:

"The Storyline process is unique. You start off by looking at the major turns in your life. You see how each negative had a positive outcome...every single time. Storyline makes it clear that the negative is still a negative and we shouldn't try to make a negative turn positive but rather see what good comes out of the bad things. I like that. It's more like just accepting that there is bad, but showing that God uses the bad to bring out good. This is shown in one of the modules that you make a time line of your life. It is neat to see the pattern of bad and good. It was encouraging to see that with every bad turn that has happened, there was good that surfaced. Next you look at the roles in your life. Storyline has you focus in on the 5 main roles in your life. Then you write down your ambitions for each one and how you are going to get to that ambition. Not just by writing down your goals, but HOW you will do it. This was a really helpful because it allowed me to think deeper about each part of my life and how you could improve each one. Also it has you identify the conflicts that may or may not happen so that you can prepare yourself for them. Lastly, it has you picture climactic scenes. This exercise is extremely helpful. Unlike a goal, by picturing a climactic scene in your brain, it has a way of connecting to you more. For example, if you want to lose weight, a goal may be a certain amount of weight lost. However, a climactic scene would be picturing yourself finishing a 5k and hugging all your friends and family and them being proud of you.

My favorite module was the negative turns. It really helped. You are always going to go through something hard where you don't see how it is going to be good. But seeing my timeline and how EVERY negative had a positive outcome made it easier to go through the hard because I knew that something good would come out of it. It helped me to see my life as a bigger picture.

I found it very helpful to go through this process with someone else. First of all, you get to know that person better which is always a cool thing to grow closer to someone. Also, it is helpful to have that second set of eyes and ears to hear and help you out when you get stuck and to see things differently than you do. Also, it makes it a commitment. You are more disciplined to do it because you are committed to meeting up.

Storyline has helped me tremendously. I loved the process and it really does help you to clarify what you want out of life and how to make the best circumstances and the best out of every situation that comes your way. The biggest thing is clarity.

I would definitely recommend Storyline, it was such an rewarding experience. It was so cool to just focus on your life and break it down. Not too often do you get to analyze your own life in such a positive and helpful fashion. I would recommend it to people going to college or about to go through a change. But really anyone can benefit because everyone is always going through trials and everyone is always trying to improve their relationships and themselves.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Love Bacon? Well we hope you didn't miss the Bacon Fest held at the Fraze. Record numbers showed for this inagural event and the Before I Die hit a record number of responses in

TWO days - 105!!!

1) Be a good mom2) Be remembered as a lovely person3) Live in Cape Town, S Africa4) I wanna do hoodrat stuff5) Teach someone how to Dougie6) Walk the Appalachians7) Meet Boooooosh8) Drive a golf cart into a lake9) Take a golf ball out of a gator's mouth and live10) Go backpacking11) Live to see 210012) Meet Amber13) Save a life14) Find a way15) Reach Nirvana16) Be Super G17) Learn to sail18) Catch a 20" trout19) Forgive my ex-wife!20) Travel all over Europe21) See Vegas22) Live on a beach23) Be a pro football player24) Go to Vegas25) End human trafficking26) Write a book about myself27) Get my parents back together 28) Have a baby and get married29) Ditto30) Love and be loved unconditionally31) Have my kids buy me a house/condo in HH32) Move to the beach33) Have a lesbian wedding34) Take my wife to Hawaii35) Play college football36) Relocate37) Live38) Married with kids39) Get a horse40) Marry Erica41) Help others42) Be charter captain43) Live in Italy44) Make a difference45) Train Dakota46) Save the Earth47) Inspire others48) Have a family49) Help as many people as I can50) Live in Eurpope51) Travel the world52) What good is gold and silver if your heart is not there?53) Be with my faith54) Live in California55) Italy56) Drive my 69 Cadillac from Chicago to LA57) Money58) Travel the world59) Beat Alter60) Fly fish61) Meet Roger Walters62) Go on a family road trip63) Operate a bulldozer64) Eat more bacon65) Learn to swim well66) Marry Greg67) Run an Iron Man68) Join the Marines69) Dance with strangers70) Go to Australia71) Live72) Travel the world73) See my daughter again74) Keep my daughter living only with me75) Shoot my age in golf76) Get bacon77) Get my back to be pain free78) Live to be God's servant79) See my family80) Be a "Mimi"81) Pay it forward82) Love more83) Spend more time with my daughter84) Write a book85) Change someone's life86) Own my own house87) Have all my dreams come true88) Meet Joss89) Destroy all anime90) Own a historical home91) See the world92) See Texas Tech win a national championship93) See my children happy and successful94) Bacon Fest rocks!95) Bungee jump96) Sky dive97) Live on Tybee Island98) See my boys as grown men, happy and settled99) Be happy100) Lick that guy's beard101) See the world102) Go to Australia103) Figure out his name104) Travel105) Drive to California and up the coast

Thursday, August 15, 2013

This week, three college students not only wrote a bucket list item on the Kettering Before I Die wall, they followed through with it! Below you will find their stories on what it meant to share their dreams with others and making it happen. Our hope is that their stories will inspire you to follow through with something you've been wanting to do! Why wait?

Natalie's Story:

I wanted to skydive because it's just one of those things you gotta experience before it's too late. Also, I was scared of it! I mean, who isn't scared of jumping out of a plane? But that's just another reason why I had to do it, because I was scared. AND IT WAS AMAZING!

Sean's Story:

As a student helping to build the ‘Before I Die’ wall I became very interested and attached to the art project and concept. I have visited a few times and written a few ‘bucket list’ dreams on there. One of the dreams I had (along with many others) was to go skydiving. So with this, Rachel, Natalie, and I started talking more and more about this dream that we all seemed to share. After a few brief text messages we scheduled ourselves an appointment to jump out of an airplane at about 12,000 feet on a standard Tuesday afternoon. Before hand we all went to the wall and wrote in large letters with our three individual varying pieces of chalk ‘GO SKYDIVING!’ Two days later, we jumped. The experience was so incredible and surreal and one of the best moments of my life! It was a great time and I recommend it to all! The wall has really began to inspire people and has launched into an awesome project and actually fulfilling one of the goals was even more awesome! Just because you want to do it before you die, doesn't mean you have to wait until you’re almost dying. Do it tomorrow!

Rachel's Story:
"There goes your friend," The man in front of me said. And I looked up to see that it was very true, Natalie was gone. She'd literally fallen out of the plane with only a parachute, an instructor, and the hope of reaching the ground alive. And the most terrifying part was, we were next. We were 12,000 feet in the air above Middletown in a small airplane, and the only way back to the ground was jumping. How did we get ourselves into this?

I feel like skydiving is a pretty common adventurous and reckless part of most people's bucket list. There's the song about "skydiving and Rocky Mountain climbing" to "live like you're dying," and Natalie, Sean and I all had it included in our lists, but how many people actually go?

Being the adventurous, slightly insane college students that we are, we set a plan in motion to jump out of a plane. You never know when will be your last opportunity to do something

My friends and family were skeptical when I told them I planned on skydiving before returning to college in a week. But they underestimated our ability to make things happen when we make up our minds. We went to the Before I Die wall to write "GO SKYDIVING." Then signed up to skydive the following Tuesday.

It turns out it is fairly simple to skydive. You can sign up online up to a day before, or simply walk in to the Start-Skydiving building in Middletown, Ohio. After initialing about 20 spaces and signing our lives away if we were to die, we watched a short video about what we were about to do, then walked over to the hanger where the instructors were folding up parachutes and preparing the next group of jumpers.

The instructors were super casual, as if flying up 2 miles into the air simply to go 140 mph back towards the ground was anything but an absolutely terrifying and dangerous activity. And for them I suppose it is: one of the instructors had jumped over 9000 times. We slipped into our extremely fashionable blue jumpsuits and were strapped into the climbing-like harnesses by the instructor assigned to us. With barely any time to fully process what we had gotten ourselves into, I found myself walking across the runway to a tiny plane with 6 other first time skydivers.

The plane flew off into the sky, and the landscape spread out below us. It may not have been the Grand Canyon or Pacific Ocean, but there is something incredible about flying over the place you grew up when someone points out Dayton or Kettering, and you have bird's eye view of your hometown.

Suddenly the door was flung open and one of my best friends was gone. Oh no. Rachel this was not a good idea, this was not a good idea....

Then Sean jumped out, and soon it was me waddling towards the gaping doorway, strapped to my instructor and seeing the cornfields spread out far below me. "Want to do a flip?" my professional asked. And I said sure, at that point, why not?

So there I am, back-flipping out of the plane with wind rushing towards me as I hurtle towards the ground. I couldn't hear myself scream as wind rushed past and I put my arms out and arched my back like I was instructed before the fall. It is surreal as we free fell back to Earth. There was no time to be scared, and we were going too fast for my stomach to even drop. I was really doing this!

I felt a jerk as the parachute caught and we slowed to a serene floating still so far above the ground. "The parachute opened, that's always a good thing," said my instructor joking with me. And I could only smile, as I took in the view of everything around me. One of my other Before I Die dreams is to become a pilot; to fly. And this was the closest I've been to actually flying, just us and a parachute thousands of feet in the air.

When we reached the ground I ran over to Natalie and Sean, and we all hugged yelling, "We did it!" A huge rush of adrenaline had convinced us that we were unstoppable. Smiles were plastered to our faces for at least the next hour as we excitedly relived our experience to my sister and Nicole who had come to watch.

We had done it. A truly crazy endeavor. We had faced any fear we had, and lived to the fullest extent in those moments as we fell from the sky; powerless over our futures, simply depending on a large piece of fabric to preserve our lives.

It is a day I will always remember, after all, how many afternoons of my life will I get to spend jumping out of a plane with two of my best friends?

This was a big weekend for the community of Kettering with two popular festivals going on at the Fraze Pavilion. With both of these events, it allowed for the wall to be bursting with responses! On Saturday, the Festival of the Vine allowed people to spend their Saturday afternoon strolling through the "vineyards" of Lincoln Park, sampling wines from all over the world. On Sunday, the Art on the Commons celebrated its 25th year and hosted over 100 artists from Ohio and surrounding states to display and sell their fine arts and fine crafts.

1) Be free2) Meg and I (Darby) see and do amazing things3) Forgive my parents4) Have a pet sloth 5) Ride in a hot air balloon6) Be happy7) Inspire the world8) Be all I can be!9) Be humbled, grounded and one with everything10) Go skydiving11) Visit all 50 states12) Be at peace with myself13) Pet a penguin14) Sleep under the Northern Lights15) Be a rockstar!16) Exceed new career goals17) At least once make my wife happy18) Make my husband happy19) Travel the world20) Be remembered21) Buy a ferret and name it Tampan22) Go camping23) Change the way the world works24) Find my love25) Find someone to tell everything to26) Play beach volleyball in Long Beach, CA...with my bro, too27) Love myself28) Learn to play the guitar29) Bring more magic into the world30) Make my footprint with art31) Buy a cat32) One lap in a Nascar33) See my children and grandchildren be grateful/productive members of society34) Go to Australia 35) Pet a shark36) Live life to the fullest37) See my kids graduate college38) Grow taller39) Forgive myself40) Learn at least 5 different languages41) Go Skydiving42) Make peace with my sister43) Travel in space44) Be a molecular biologist45) Go travel through space46) Hi Kate!47) Love selflessly48) Visit every continent49) Hike the entire Appalachian Trail50) Love the skin I'm in51) Write a book and get it published52) Make the world a little better53) Have a pet ostrich54) Live in Ireland55) Send my parents to Ireland56) Be in 2 places at once57) Reflect the Spirit of God58) Be loved59) Be more grateful60) Continue being happy61) Travel the world62) Enjoy today63) Get my art out in the world64) Travel all over Europe65) Meet my life goal66) Shower in a waterfall67) Ditto68) Have a big family69) Eat Ritters70) Hear the voice of God71) Chill with Willie Nelson72) Train a pet cheetah73) Love endlessly